By Tiffany Knight Raymond, Ph.D.
Victorian writer Oscar Wilde was best known as a playwright, so it’s no surprise his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, has been adapted into theater (this one by Robert Kauzlaric).
Artist Basil Halward (Dason Strawder) becomes consumed with painting a perfect portrait of the handsome Dorian Gray (George Ramey). Basil’s preoccupation becomes Gray’s obsession as Dorian realizes “the painting will keep what I lose.” Dorian’s wish to never age is granted, although his portrait counterpart does.
Dorian’s 19th century fears translate well to today. Any of us who have ever looked wistfully at pictures of our younger selves relate to Dorian’s desire to stave off aging. Dorian’s crisis anticipates the unhealthy comparisons and youth-obsessed tinderbox of social media, filters, and facial fillers.
Director Brooke Echnat has the baby-faced George Ramey preen through his performance and tilt his head back, literalizing his looking down on others. Ramey captures a man committed to the idolatry of youth who chronically upstages his aging contemporaries by virtue of his agelessness. He is arrogant and indifferent, blatantly disregarding Basil’s instructions during portraiture. Dorian indiscriminately justifies his demeaning treatment of actress Sibyl Vane (Kat Bowman) after she disappoints him with a lackluster performance. Bowman captures the hopeful naivete of Vane, the stereotype of an actress looking to ascend, regardless of the cost.
The intimacy of the Carnegie Stage space allows Stage Warp Productions to put the actual portrait at the center of the play. In the opening scene, Basil faux paints into a blank frame, letting us imagine the end product. Strawder captures Basil’s tensions. While painting is his profession, he is also clearly attracted to Dorian. Basil endlessly refines the painting to delay its completion as that will signal the end of the artist/subject relationship.
Basil also wants to keep Dorian for himself. That plan goes awry when Basil’s friend Lord Henry Wotton (Justin Macurdy) decides he wants to see the good-looking Dorian. Lord Wotton proudly proclaims his goal is the “new hedonism,” and he makes a quick convert of Dorian, leaving the placid Basil without either man. Macurdy and Gray are both peacock-like, using their wealth and youth as levers for indiscriminately indulging hedonistic impulses.
A canvas portrait does emerge thanks to the work of portrait artist Erin Zeddies. Zeddies’ eye-catching portrait comes to occupy center stage both literally and metaphorically. The painting is styled much like a page-a-day calendar. Portrait pages are removed to show the passage of time on Dorian’s painted face. A large ensemble cast represent old and young versions of the primary characters. However, Dorian’s older version is just the painting of him, sharply manifesting the two-dimensional quality of a life lived only in pursuit of pleasure.
Oscar Wilde was jailed for homosexual acts, and imprisonment cut his life short. As a painter, Basil’s profession provides a “safe” way to explore his male gaze. With the rights of women and queer identities under threat today, Wilde’s own life reminds us that no one thrives under oppression.
Wilde’s novel is considered Gothic fiction, a genre hallmarked by the dark and supernatural, making this the perfect play to wind down spooky season – or perhaps carry it forward.
-TKR
Stage Warp Production’s presentation of The Picture of Dorian Gray runs through November 2, 2024 at Carnegie Stage (25 W. Main Street, Carnegie, PA). Purchase tickets online at www.stagewarp.org.